Preparing for Life after BC

Most collegiate student-athletes start their career not thinking about how it all ends. They dream of joining a team, competing for glory and potentially hoisting a trophy. They share the same sweat and tears and they pour everything they have into their sports. They all learn to live in and for the moment and that last game or moment can sneak up on them if they're not careful.

That's where schools and conferences help athletes understand what future planning means. One of those programs, an Atlantic Coast Conference initiative, helps student-athletes, as the NCAA tagline says, "go pro in something other than sports" with the ACC Futures Internship Program. It's a highly selective program designed to pluck the best and brightest from the member institutions.

This year, Boston College will be well represented, with senior rowing captains Claire Orzel and Laura Mazziotta joining the program in two distinct roles. Orzel, a Delaware native who came north for school, will head to the Sunshine State to work with Fox Sports Florida, while Mazziotta, who is from the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area, will join the ACC conference offices in Greensboro, N.C.

It's a diverging of two roads that start on the same team. Orzel will be working with marketing for the television network, while Mazziotta will help coordinate championship sites at the conference level.

"Working for Fox Sports Florida will specifically allow me to work in the marketing department," Orzel said. "Since it's in South Florida, it's predominantly in the Miami, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale (regions) with the goal to strengthen the entities and various markets throughout South Florida."

"There's a lot of work with individual (sports) championships," Mazziotta said of her upcoming work. "There's the responsibilities of manuals, sites and coordination between coaches and teams to organize championship games, races and everything. It's going to have a range of sports and it's going to be great to see the sports teams in every sport in the ACC."

Both Orzel and Mazziotta will be able to draw on experiences from Boston College. As members of the rowing team, there's a case that their teamwork needed to be more in sync than any other ACC-sponsored sport. But beyond training and competing on rivers and waterways, both Eagles learned the value of augmenting their work within the BC Athletics Department.

For Orzel, marketing is an extension of her current work with the athletics communications office. Working with new media, including social outlets, allowed her to explore the new avenues of game coverage and it introduced her to a fast-paced setting where things can change in an instant.

"BC has really taught me a lot about flexibility," she said. "You go into a game to cover social media without ever knowing what will happen or what the outcome will be. So you really have to stay on your toes and be flexible. You have to have some fun with it because you have to be adaptable if the team is doing well or not doing well. I've found that you always have to think on your feet, and that's something I can bring into this role (with Fox Sports)."

It's also exposed Orzel to the inner workings of sports outside of rowing. Her role at BC enabled her to work football's game against Connecticut at Fenway Park, along with broader events like Women In Sports Day.

"They were all really fun and interesting," she said, noting that there was ample time also spent in Conte Forum at hockey games.

Mazziotta, on the other hand, spent more time on the business side of sports while spending time in the development office. Working at BC helped foster her organizational skills, all of which will come into play as she steps into new territory with the ACC.

"I've really gotten to see the business side (of college athletics)," she said. "There's an organizational side of hockey games and football games, and (working at the ACC) will relate to that because we'll be doing a lot of organization within the league for championships. It'll be a new situation of doing all different sports like fencing, track and field and other sports that I haven't yet been exposed to.

"There was a mention of updating championship manuals as well," she continued. "I haven't worked with the law side (of sports), so that's really going to be interesting. Working with different hosts and personnel at the site level - at BC, we only really work in our home turf, so it'll be very interesting to work with schools across the ACC."

It's two very distinct career paths built from the culture of attending Boston College. They came to Chestnut Hill from different areas but searched for the same type of experience, finding it by donning the Maroon and Gold for their college experience.

"I'm from outside D.C. in Maryland, so Boston drew me because it's a similar size," Mazziotta said. "I liked that BC had a campus but was really close to the city. Sports were a big deal to me and it really impacted me how big hockey and football are (on campus). I've always loved them in a wide range of different sports, so the size of athletics events was a big factor.

"And then you combine that obviously with the academics that we have," she continued. "I didn't meet the rowing team before I got here but I had met with the coaches and saw the campus. Seeing the different races that the team goes to and how competitive our conference is, it really drew me to (BC)."

"Competing and practicing on the Charles River really appealing to me because it's a historical venue," Orzel said. "But then I came here on my official visit and met the team and there was an instant connection. I could tell that the girls and the coaches really cared so much and that competitive atmosphere really meant a lot to me. (Coming to BC) taught me a lot of resilience, as well as motivation, which is what we have to do as captains. It's been invaluable because there are so many traits and experience we've participated in."

Players Mentioned

Laura Mazziotta

Claire Orzel

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